Data centers are perched upon technology’s advanced battlements. They must be highly scalable and able to support ever-increasing bandwidth each year. Newer data centers look far differently than they did just a decade ago, and strategies for design and style continue to shift under the weight of big data, cloud computing, mobility and other technology trends.

IT professionals must be cross specialty virtuosos in environments of ever-increasing complexity. Service costs have a continuous downward pressure, as economizing infrastructure is a goal for enterprises of all kinds. Examining emerging IT technologies can be a crystal ball for peering into the role of IT and data centers of the future.

Cloud storage supports flexibility in computingMany enterprises now require mobile computing to communicate with workers, clients and customers on the go. Cloud computing, flash storage, virtualization software-defined networks and new data center management tools will help data center managers deliver the data their customers or end users need.

Flash is expensive technology that will be most relevant for high-performance computing applications in the financial-services industry. Flash can provide a millisecond advantage for a single transaction that can be worth millions of dollars.

Integration of flash storage arrays in data centers as a performance enhancement is underway. Applications based on flash storage arrays occupy a smaller footprint and can provide an internationally distributed network. The price of flash is expected to decline within the next five years making it more accessible for less high profile applications.

Cloud computing can readily provide data access to any type of Internet-connected device and access to cloud data from virtually anywhere.

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Server virtualization increases data center efficiencyServer virtualization is a popular trend that maximizes efficient IT resource management and provides for computing agility as well as reduction in cost. It includes storage virtualization, network virtualization and workload management. Autonomic computing is a new trend where the server environment can manage itself based on levels of activity. Server virtualization can reduce or eliminate server sprawl, can increase efficiency of server resources, improve server availability, assist in disaster recovery and centralize server administration.

Software-defined networking to improve data routingSoftware-defined networking (SDN) is an emerging framework supporting virtual, dynamic and flexible networking that allows organizations to more easily control and administer today's physical and virtual networks.

SDN is likely to provide more efficient data routing throughout the network. IT SDN administrators can manage this type of network without manually configuring any hardware.

SDN also helps data centers enforce data security by providing different security layers against threats such as denial-of-service attacks. IT can also secure network data via encryption so a malicious attacker who manages to retrieve data cannot actually view it.

IT datacenter as technology innovatorIT Datacenters must function as technology innovators to provide their customers with service that supports the technology they need to be competitive while providing the most efficient and flexible processing. In today’s world SDN, server virtualization, cloud storage and data center management tools are resources supporting data center innovation. Moving from static to mobile support and from physical to software configuration bring the agility we need now.